Chapter 177 – Two Separate Worlds – Ellie Daniels

The meeting with Holly was everything I wished for. I was visibly nervous, but so was she. We spent a couple of hours catching up in Val’s workshop before her mom arrived. We mostly talked about our respective school lives, with Val occasionally chiming in to add to Holly’s side of the conversation.

My biggest takeaway from that conversation was that Holly was living a vastly more fulfilling life than I was. It was to be expected, given my antisocial behavior at school. Maybe I could’ve been more sociable like Holly and Opal this school year under different circumstances. After losing her, my will to reach out to others shriveled away.

I got the feeling that Holly was ‘over’ me, in more than one sense. Our separation obviously did more damage to me than it did to her. Not that I was complaining about it. I just felt left behind. Just watching her talk face-to-face with Val cued me in to how close the two were.

Was I a bad person for feeling jealous of that? Maybe… Holly was mine alone for so long that a natural part of me felt entitled to her love. While it wasn’t weird to have lingering feelings for her, I’d need to control my urges to be as needy with her as I was in the past. We were past that now.

A year ago this would’ve been a different story. Things changed so drastically between us that I couldn’t fall back on old habits and selfishly demand her attention. The decision to turn our reunion into an introductory meeting was for the best. I might’ve tried something inappropriate otherwise.

My meeting with Holly’s mother turned out to be emotional in its own respect. She, along with Holly, were almost like family to me, considering that I grew up around them. Seeing her again was like reuniting with a distant relative.

The four of us left Val’s workshop together in Ms. Hayfield’s car. According to Holly, their new home wasn’t as far from mine as their former place was. I’d be able to visit anytime that I wanted without going out of my way.

This casual offer made me think about my disagreement with Opal, and how afraid I was of being alone. The emotional calculus of risking things with Opal by reaching out to Holly wasn’t so intimidating anymore. Not that I wanted to lose Opal in any given situation. But I wouldn’t let her control me with ultimatums.

Somewhat coincidentally, Opal was texting me during the ride over, asking what my plans were for the weekend. In truth, I planned to stay the night at Holly’s place after contacting my dad. I couldn’t tell Opal that openly though. I was holding off on having that conversation.

We arrived at Holly’s house where several of her friends were already waiting for us. Ms. Hayfield left to go take care of some business matters. All of Holly’s friends eyed me with great intrigue the moment I walked in as if I were a celebrity. I didn’t think it was possible for me to feel more nervous about this day.

Holly gave me some basic introductions to each of her friends like their names, how they met, and a few small details here and there. Holly got everyone some snacks and refreshments before we all sat down in the living room to chat. I sat beside Val since she was the only person I knew aside from Zara and Holly.

“So…?” Zara asked the girl sitting beside her. “What do you think?”

Naomi nodded her head approvingly.

“Yep. Ellie’s cute.” Naomi said decidedly. “I can see her being my girlfriend’s ex-girlfriend.”

“What?” I asked in shock. “You mean, you’re…”

“No!” Alyssa and Holly both said at the same time.

“I’m Holly’s girlfriend!” Alyssa said.

Holly slapped Alyssa lightly on the shoulder.

“They’re just messing around, Ellie.” Holly said. “Naomi calls all of her close friends her girlfriends.”

“Oh…” I said.

Jay, the girl who was sitting on the other side of Val, spared a glance up from her phone.

“I don’t think Alyssa was joking…” Jay teased.

“You’re one to talk.” Sam said, cracking a sly smile. “How long have you considered yourself Val’s girlfriend?”

“That’s totally different and you know it!” Jay said.

Valentina rolled her eyes and reclined into her seat.

“Looks like we’re off to a good start... You’re all going to give Ellie the impression that we’re a bunch of weirdos.”

“But…” Lilith started to say with a wicked grin.

“Not a single snide comment out of you.” Valentina warned her.

Everyone in the room laughed.

“At the risk of being punished by Val, I have to admit that we are on the weird side.” Silver said. “That pretty much goes for anyone that attends Meredith’s School for Troubled Girls.”

“You’re not wrong.” Lilith said. “It’s essentially an obligatory condition for enrollment.”

Charlotte, who was sitting in the corner across from me, finally decided to speak up. She might’ve felt a little shy about being the only underclassman in a group of senior students.

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“What a horribly offensive, but absolutely correct way to describe our school.” She said. “I don’t think I can even be upset by the insult…”

“Because it’s true.” Lilith said seriously. “Any girl at our school that doesn’t have a weird quirk or two is just good at hiding it.”

“Oh yeah…?” Charlotte asked. “Then what’s Holly’s quirk?”

“Like I said, some people are good at hiding it.” Lilith said.

“Please give me a break. Let’s change the subject.” Holly said. “I invited everyone here so that Ellie could get a glimpse of how things are at our school.”

“For that to work we’d need a few more delinquents.” Jay said.

“I could call up some of my girlfriends.” Sam offered.

“Please don’t.” Val said.

“Actually, I do have one thing that I was interested in about your school that Zara couldn’t tell me over the phone…” I said.

“Name it.” Val said.

I sat at the edge of my seat in anticipation before speaking. The topic that I wanted to bring up was something that I was greatly interested in.

“What do people at your school think of the Killing Cat?” I asked. “Is she really the vengeful spirit of Malorie Noelle?!”

My obvious excitement was betraying me. They were all giving me funny looks after hearing the volume of my voice rise suddenly. The room got awkwardly quiet as they stared between each other. In my excitement I didn’t stop to consider that a resident killer might be a taboo topic at their school.

“Sorry…” I said in embarrassment. “If you girls feel uncomfortable talking about her, then…”

“The Killing Cat is a hero!” Alyssa said suddenly.

Holly immediately sent her a silencing glare, to witch Alyssa shrunk back a little. Lilith, having noticed the subtle interaction, smiled deviously.

“Alyssa’s right.” Lilith said. “The Killing Cat is doing what needed to be done.”

“It was more than what anyone of us were willing to do, anyways.” Jay said. “We had group discussions about what we could do to avenge Malorie but never came up with anything conclusive. We made a simple website, but I had to shut it down due to cost constraints when it became too popular.”

“My classmates talk about it sometimes.” Charlotte said. “Most people think the Killing Cat is either a student from our school or a real spirit. I’m on the fence. The images I saw look like a person, but this person is virtually impossible to find. It could be an angry spirit…”

“The mystery of Malorie Noelle began when four of us went down into the secret school basement.” Naomi said. “We found a dead body that one of our teachers, Ms. Logan, had been preserving. From there, things spiraled into craziness.”

“Yeah, and Ms. Sampson tried to convince us otherwise.” Sam pointed out.

“Thinking about that still makes me upset.” Lilith said angrily. “Things would’ve been easier if we could’ve gone down into that basement a second time that day. We shouldn’t have told Ms. Sampson anything.”

“I know that name. Ms. Logan was a victim of the Killing Cat, right? Why was she preserving a corpse?” I asked.

Everyone looked at Holly to answer this. I supposed that meant Holly was the one that new the most about the topic. Holly acknowledged their looks and turned towards me.

“Because they were friends.” Holly explained. “Ms. Logan was Malorie’s closest friend but threw her under the bus when their social circle turned against her. Malorie lost her life for it. Ms. Logan never forgave herself for that and it tormented her. She thought she was preserving Malorie’s memory by preserving her dead body. Her story is almost as tragic as Malorie’s.”

“And you knew her well?” I asked.

“I did.” Holly said solemnly. “And I’d rather not talk about her. I just hope that she’s resting peacefully now.”

The room went silent again for a moment before Lilith spoke up.

“Since we’re on the topic of the Killing Cat, just how much of the story surrounding Malorie and the murders are circulating at your school? Is this a common topic there?”

“When everyone heard about the first few murders people dismissed them as random violence. The knife murders were brutal, but sicker things have happened in this city between gang members. Everything changed when Angelica Morelli was murdered. The story exploded from there.” I said.

“Yeah, that’s what got me interested into it too!” Zara said. “A murdered police officer that was wrapped up in an even larger conspiracy surrounding the disappearance of a teenage girl from ten years ago…? Things like that never happen here! It was exciting!”

“That’s exactly how I felt!” Lilith said excitedly.

“Oh boy, don’t get Lilith started…” Val said before taking a sip out of her glass of water. “We’ll be here all night.”

“I thought that was the plan?” Naomi asked.

“You know what I meant.” Val said.

“What about you, Holly?” I asked casually. “What do you think of the Killing Cat?”

“Me…?” Holly asked. “I… It doesn’t matter what I think.”

“She always chastises me or Alyssa if we bring it up.” Lilith said. “But I get the feeling that Holly isn’t totally against the Killing Cat. She mentioned before that she bought one of the replica masks!”

“Shut up, Lilith!” Holly snapped. “That was supposed to be a secret!”

“Is it true?” Valentina asked in a laugh. “Did you really buy one of those tacky Halloween masks?”

“No…” Holly said in a subdued voice. “I made it myself.”

“I can see why.” Sam said. “The Killing Cat mask I bought was so flimsy that the cheap string broke after my second time wearing it. I thought about buying another one but asked Silver to make me one instead.”

“Oh!” Zara said in excitement. “Can you make one for me too, Silver? Please…?!!”

“Yeah, me too!” Naomi added.

“Sure.” Silver said. “I was actually planning to make one for Alyssa and Lilith since they asked me a few days ago. Making them in bulk will save me time.”

“I guess you have your answer, Ellz.” Naomi said and laughed. “Everybody around here loves the Killing Cat!”

“Ellz,” I said with a smile. “You must be spending too much time around Zara. She’s the only one that calls me that.”

“It definitely rubbed off on me.” Naomi said. “It’s a cute nickname.”

“Can I use that as your nickname too?” Charlotte asked.

“I don’t normally go by it, but sure.” I said.

“Now that everyone’s acquainted, how about a movie?” Holly asked. “There’s this funny animated movie that I think everyone here will enjoy.”

“That’s cool with me.” I said.

The movie that Holly put on was a comedy-musical mainly targeted at kids, but everyone still had a great time. The movie was good, but we mostly used it as a springboard to converse about a range of topics. Charlotte was the only one too engrossed with the movie to contribute.

Holly was the center of attention during all this. She was just as loved with these new friends of hers as she was back when she was the track star of our school. Her transition between schools was complete and she lived in a separate world from me.

During all of this, I closely watched each girl talk to Holly, trying to determine who was closest with her. Did she replace me with any of these girls? Did she have a girlfriend? It was a petty thing of me to do, but my curiosity was getting the better of me.

The conclusion that I came to was that it was nearly impossible to tell from this interaction alone. Holly and Val seemed close earlier, but she appeared equally close with Alyssa and Silver. There was definitely something going on here, but I didn’t sense it was a romantic connection.

Lilith was reading a book instead of watching the movie, which was a little amusing. She didn’t speak much with anyone, but when she did, it was almost always with Holly. Lilith had naturally sharp, intimidating eyes. Whenever her eyes fell on Holly they softened considerably.

I decided that I needed to know. I wanted to learn more about Holly’s friends, and if possible, integrate myself into Holly’s new world. It was easy to feel like an outsider in a gathering of friends like this, being the only one from a different school. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t reach out for them and try to reduce the gap.

“I’m having fun so far.” I told the group when the movie was over. “Do you think we could meet up like this again?”